The OC-oriented Asus Maximus Z690 Apex is one of the most expensive Z690 boards, but to be fair, it is far below Asus' own Maximus Extreme. Its main rivals, the Aorus Tachyon ($550) and MSI Unify-X ($500), are both considerably less expensive.

Motherboards designed specifically for overclocking have long been replaced by RGB-ized gaming designs. However, while overclocking has not gone away, and the days of overclocking to flagship-class performance levels using inexpensive processors and motherboards are long gone, it is nice to see major manufacturers addressing the OC market on a smaller scale. Boards such as Tachyon, Unify-X, and Asus Maximus Apex are usually highly regarded, but tend to cost painfully high these days.

In better news, Asus has done away with its Roman numeral nomenclature. This makes it easier to identify the board without Googling it; instead of being called Maximus XIV Apex, it is now simply Maximus Z690 Apex.

Before we get into the board itself, let's touch on the bundled accessories: Asus has added a bit of future-proofing by including a PCIe 5.0 M.2 add-in card. Since it does not, this card is a great addition for when PCIe 5.0 SSDs come along.

The card itself supports a single drive; PCIe 5.0 drives are expected to get very hot, so the large chunky heatsink will keep them reliably cool compared to chewing gum-sized coolers or aluminum strips. Note that the card requires the PCIe slots to operate in 8x/8x mode.

Other notable features include an innovative device that Asus calls ROG True Voltician. This is essentially an oscilloscope device that can monitor a variety of parameters. It probably has limited use for the average gamer (although that could be said about the board as a whole). However, it could be a useful tool for the ultra-serious if you want to see what is happening with overclocking, or if you want to troubleshoot a problematic device.

Now on to the board itself. At first glance, Asus' choice of appearance, especially the large dotted ROG logo above the I/O section, is not very clear. This hardly matters, however, as there are two RGB sections, one inside the main VRM heatsink and the other with the ROG logo built into the chipset heatsink. There are plenty of OC switches and buttons, including various LN2 modes, slow mode, BIOS switches, voltage reading points, etc. There is also a moisture detector that will let you know if the CPU or DRAM area gets a little damp.

You may have noticed that there are only two RAM slots. This is a common feature on OC boards where good DRAM overclocking is more important than maximum capacity because the traces are short and the signal is clean. next to the RAM slots is an Asus DIMM.2 M.2 slot where a daughter card with a pair of M.2 drives A daughter card with a pair of M.2 drives can be installed. [Adding the slot for a PCIe 5.0 add-in card, there will be a total of five M.2 slots. There are also dual PCIe 5.0 slots that can operate at x16/x0 or x8/x8. There are also PCIe 3.0 x4 and 1x slots for other peripheral component boards. For old-fashioned connectivity, there are six SATA ports and a total of nine fan/pump headers, with additional waterflow headers for custom water cooling setups

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The Apex features one of the best, if not the best, VRM designs on a Z690 board: a 105A-stage Renesas 24+2 phase VRM that can blink through the Intel Core i9 12900K's all-core AVX benchmark at over 2.0V It has enough power to ...

The CPU may flame out, but the board is in good hands.

Asus has equipped the Apex with a large, heavy-duty heatsink. We like the gigabyte finned solutions that offer more surface area, but Asus' bulk is better than most; peak VRM temperature was 55°C when running 12900K at full load. Not bad. With proper airflow, cooling would not be a problem.

Rear I/O includes 10 strong USB ports: one Type-C 3.2 Gen 2x2 port, five Gen 2 ports, and four Gen 1 ports; PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports; BIOS flashback and CMOS clear buttons; a full set of audio ports. [Networking is handled by an Intel i225-V and AX210 Wi-Fi 6E controller. There are two schools of thought here. We like to see 5G and 10G Lan on high-end boards these days, but is it an afterthought on an overclocked board? Audio is handled by a Realtek ALC4080 controller; if you need bells and whistles like Thunderbolt 4, you'll have to look elsewhere. At this price, such things are considered standard, but since this is an overclocked board, we'll overlook some of these omissions unless you don't mind.

As for performance, most Z690 boards perform fairly close to each other as long as they adhere to Intel's 241W PL2 power limit at 12900K. However, there is no need to run stock on this board.

Ideally, we would take out our dusty LN2 pots and bring them into the Apex pace, but that is of little concern to 99% of users. Our 12900K is reaching its cooling limits before the board even breaks a sweat.

System Performance

Gaming Performance

More important with Alder Lake and overclocking is how the board handles fast memory. Our G.Skill DDR5-6000 test kit can achieve 6,400MHz on Apex, but it is not easy and requires a lot of VDDQ voltage. The 12900K memory controller may be reaching its limits, since the Team Delta kit, which is rated at 6,400 MHz XMP, cannot achieve speeds above 6,400 MHz.

Time will tell if connecting a DDR5-7000 kit will help. If a first generation Z690 board could do it, it would definitely be the Apex.

The Z690 Apex will remain an OC favorite well into the future thanks to frequent BIOS updates that incorporate feedback from many knowledgeable overclockers. if you plan on buying a set of DDR5-6000+ and want to get every last frame per second out of your rig, you'll want to get the most out of this product. If you want to get the most out of your rig, this product is bound to have a long life.

And it's a really high-quality board, loaded with OC-friendly features. As expected, memory overclocking is very good, and the BIOS feels very sophisticated considering it is early in the DDR5 era. However, not enough to earn my recommendation.

For me, it still has to offer value as well. And sadly, that's where Apex stumbles; it's really hard to justify its high asking price when compared to the Aorus Tachyon or the MSI Unify-X. In fact, even if you strip away the over-engineered design and M.2 card, its feature list is not particularly impressive when compared to mid-range boards. It seems a bit of a waste for an air-cooled or AIO-cooled CPU.

The Asus ROG Maximums Z690 Apex is likely to be a long-lived board with continued BIOS support and full support for 2nd generation DDR5, PCIe 5.0 SSDs, and 13th generation processors The Apex is a great choice for expensive CPUs and very fast board to consider only if you already have a DDR5 kit. For everyone else, redirecting your funds to other components is a much better way to improve your gaming performance.